Head of the NSA lied to Congress as well about Bush's illegal spy program, which is a crime

Ok, at what point do Republicans who claim to care about law and order, and values, and government excess actually step up to the plate and acknowledge that this is not good having our top government officials breaking the law in order to, well, break the law.

FORMER CONGRESSMAN PORTER GOSS: Well, lets — again, I don’t want to get into details. I’m aware of the public nature of this meeting. But let’s just suppose this sniper [in the United States] is somebody we wanted to catch very badly. Could we apply all our technologies and all our capabilities and all our know how against that person? Or would that person be considered to have protection as an American citizen?

NSA DIRECTOR MICHAEL HAYDEN: That person would have protections as what the law defines as a U.S. person. And I would have no authorities to pursue it.

But in fact, as ThinkProgress notes, Hayden was ALREADY pursuing such individuals under order from President Bush. So did Hayden lie to Congress, which is a crime, by saying he didn't have any authority to spy on persons in the US, or did Hayden tell the truth, namely, that the NSA does NOT have the legal authority to spy on people inside the US, but Bush ordered them to do it anyway, thus Bush broke the law?

Head of the NSA lied to Congress as well about Bush's illegal spy program, which is a crime

Ok, at what point do Republicans who claim to care about law and order, and values, and government excess actually step up to the plate and acknowledge that this is not good having our top government officials breaking the law in order to, well, break the law.

FORMER CONGRESSMAN PORTER GOSS: Well, lets — again, I don’t want to get into details. I’m aware of the public nature of this meeting. But let’s just suppose this sniper [in the United States] is somebody we wanted to catch very badly. Could we apply all our technologies and all our capabilities and all our know how against that person? Or would that person be considered to have protection as an American citizen?

NSA DIRECTOR MICHAEL HAYDEN: That person would have protections as what the law defines as a U.S. person. And I would have no authorities to pursue it.

But in fact, as ThinkProgress notes, Hayden was ALREADY pursuing such individuals under order from President Bush. So did Hayden lie to Congress, which is a crime, by saying he didn't have any authority to spy on persons in the US, or did Hayden tell the truth, namely, that the NSA does NOT have the legal authority to spy on people inside the US, but Bush ordered them to do it anyway, thus Bush broke the law?

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